What’s most surprising about the whole thing to me, however, is that the Titans offensive linemen didn’t retaliate.

After seeing three Steelers manhandle Young like they did on the play, I expected to see at least one Titan come to his defense and immediately go after one of the Steelers. In that case, I think a message needed to be sent.

I asked several of the linemen why they didn’t retaliate.

“All of us saw it and clearly it was in view of enough people. But by then everybody was looking at it and if you retaliate, one or more of us would be getting a fine or at least a 15-yard personal foul penalty,” tackle Michael Roos said. “It is unfortunate (a penalty) didn’t get called. We were definitely trying to plead our case to the officials on the field but it didn’t happen.”

Tackle David Stewart is one of the team’s enforcers, a guy who never hesitates to get in a lick on an opponent. He’s no stranger to fines.

“I’ve seen the play on tape since, and it was borderline,” Stewart said. “A lot of times the second punch, that is what’s going to get flagged.”

Guard Jake Scott said he is not sure retaliating would have helped the cause.

“I thought it was dirty. I asked the official, ‘Why didn’t you call that?’ Of course he didn’t have an answer,” Scott said. “It was a dirty play, a dirty hit and it should have been a penalty and it wasn’t. But it doesn’t help the team to go in there and hit somebody after the fact, to go dive on the pile, because if you dive on the pile you are just adding one more guy on top of Vince. So that doesn’t help either.”

The linemen said the best plan to even the score after a play like Harrison’s is to get him back later, when the officials aren’t looking. I don’t think they ever evened the score on Sunday.

“You can look at a lot of plays and say, ‘Could I have given a little extra here or a cheap shot here and maybe gotten away with it?’ ” Roos said. “You can do that every game about a lot of plays. It is unfortunate it happened. It probably won’t happen again the next time we play them.”